Do-It-Yourself Robotics 90
PreacherTom writes "Imagine Legos and Erector Sets on crack.
The fruit of a collaboration between Lego and the MIT Media Lab, the Toronto-based startup Playful Invention Company is offering the PicoCricket, "a kit of parts that can be used to build an infinite variety of robotic inventions. The kit contains an assortment of pom poms, pipe cleaners, and other craft materials reminiscent of a summer camp art period. It also includes a collection of Lego bricks and electronics: the Cricket "brain" and a motor, colored lights and a soundbox, a digital display, and an infrared beamer that allows the Cricket to communicate with a PC on which kids write the programs that control their invention's behavior. Perhaps the most important parts in the Cricket kit are the four sensors, which detect light, sound, touch, and electrical resistance.
"It was lots of fun making things and controlling their action," says Grover Venkatasubramaniam (age 10). "The most fun was programming the robots. It felt like giving life to lifeless bodies.""
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I just call him "Noodle" for short.
KFG
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There was a thread a while ago where you mentioned traditional violin playing making use of microtones. I love traditional fiddle music (I play guitar, and have had a few violin lessons). Can you please recommend some recordings? You made mention of traditional Scottish and Briton music..
I'm a member of emusic, and have found these recordings:
The Beaton Family of Mabou: Cape Breton Fiddle and Piano Music (http://www.emusic.com/album/10864/10864323.html)
Various Artists: Smithsonian Folkways: The He
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Actually, it isn't. Indic words can be broken down into conjunct-consonant groups that roughly correspond to a single syllable. The kid's name, therefore, is more correctly broken down as veM-ka-t'a-s'u-bra-ma-nyam; I really haven't anyone break such a name down to 'asub', which, if you know Sanskrit, would mean 'inauspicious' (and thus defeat the purpose of having two Gods names in yours)
Might add here that the kid's real name is probably Siddharth (and not whatever they typed in the article)and that, qui
What do you need those materials for. (Score:5, Funny)
This one time at summer camp, I built a cheerleader robot.
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Re:What do you need those materials for. (Score:4, Funny)
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... an assortment of porn porns,
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Wouldn't it be more efficient to build a robot that somehow solves the problem at the root? The situation that gives you the need for a therapist?
Some suggestions, adjusted for the slashdot-crowd:
I wish (Score:3, Interesting)
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Actually I do wonder how easily programmable this is for a 10-year old, as it apparently can do quite fancy stuff (shoe with leds in them, where the colors of leds that light up depend on the speed with which you walk). I don't know any of the lego sets, so I have really no clue how child-friendly they are. Anyone can give me an update on this?
Mindstorms would be better (Score:3, Insightful)
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Actually [bnxt.com], as described in the NXT HDK documentation [lego.com] (this link is a download), all sensor ports can act as I2C controllers and sensor port #4 also provides an RS485 bus. The I2C capability is currently utilized by the ultrasonic sensor as well as aftermarket sensors by HiTechnic [hitechnic.com] and MindSensors [mindsensors.com]. The RS485 capability is not currently use
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As for bluetooth, I don't want to rely on it too much. Someone starts making lunch with a microwave or using a mobile phone nearby and everything starts crapping out...
Regards,
Ross
Re:Mindstorms would be better (Score:4, Informative)
Mindstorms are pretty cool, but these [lynxmotion.com] are completely awesome. The only downside is they're a bit more expensive than Mindstorm.
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Don't get me started on what I wish they had when *I* was a kid - cheap computers (the Atari 800 w/ magnetic storage was nearly $2000!!) cheap-assed web cams, cheap movie editing software (buddy and I were going to make our own stop-action "Aliens" with action figures - developing the b/w 8mm film was going to be about $200) high speed internet, big-assed hard drives (paid over $1000 for a 5MB HD in my 20's) cheap blank CDs and DVDs, cheap or free web development tools, free p
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Damn (Score:1)
I am sorry.
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And I thought I was the only one.
Perfect job for him! (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe he could get that job with Stephen Hawking...
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... worth the high karma price
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When a 10 year old kid starts saying things like, "It felt like giving life to lifeless bodies." , it's time to take a step back. When he says something like that, it implies he gives life to lifeless bodies every day.
You know after he said that to the news guy, he's thinking to himself, "Yes, foolish interviewer, I will take your soul and animate your shattered corpse to join my army of the UNDEAD!!! Mwahahhahah!"
wow, pipe cleaners ! (Score:4, Funny)
This has been around for a while (Score:4, Informative)
Flash-heavy site though.
Droids (Score:5, Funny)
Kit robotics (Score:2, Interesting)
Kit robotics is getting better (Score:5, Informative)
There's real progress in kit robotics, but you have to be willing to pay roughly the price of a PS3 for it. See Lynxmotion [lynxmotion.com] and Hitec Robotics [hitecrobotics.com].
Among other things, you can finally get stock R/C type servos with a digital interface providing position and torque feedback. That's a huge step up - you're no longer stuck with blind position control; you can do force control and software-implemented compliance, like Brooks' insects from a decade ago. The actuator hardware is now available.
Sensing is improving, but a 6DOF INS is still rare on kit robots. That's purely a volume problem; accelerometer and gyro chips are cheap, but the systems haven't come down enough yet. We're starting to see rate gyros in kit robots; adding a rate gyro to an R/C biped makes the thing much more stable.
The software used to drive hobbyist robots tends to be way behind the state of the art, but that will get fixed as more people read the papers and write code. The next few years are going to be interesting.
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When do they start dreaming of electric sheep? (Score:1)
Thus spoke J.F. Sebastian. At least Blade Runner remains under budget and ahead of schedule.
Other Robot Kits (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, if you'd rather go the old-school route, you could go looking for Capsela sets and try hacking together a few custom bubble modules to give it some intelligence.
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VEX != Robot (Score:1)
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XBC Robot Starter Kit (Score:2, Interesting)
The best lego kit for the money is the XBC Robot Starter Kit [botballstore.org]. Its a little rough around the edges, and the documentation could be *way* better, but the XBC is wicked :-)
It's LEGO... (Score:1)
LEGO Bricks... (Score:2)
Hard Sell? (Score:1)
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I agree. I'm afraid at $250 a pop, this will only be available to rich kids. Which is fine as far as it goes, I'm just wondering what the other 90% of kids can have to play with. At least you can pick up LEGO mindstorms set pretty cheap at brinklink [brinklink.com].
I wonder what other options are out there for good, low-cost robotics toys?
That's "bricklink" (Score:1)
still can't get passed this part (Score:1, Funny)
-m10
Crack, or steroids? (Score:2)
Mod Parent Up (Score:1)
Can I Buld a Walking Eye? (Score:2)
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Personally I prefer (Score:2)
sounds fun (Score:1)
Glad I never had one when I was little... (Score:2)
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Based on what I've seen from similar posts like this from other people, you're fibbing. Slashdotters never have anything to do with girls... that is unless they are girls.
If this post offends you, feel free to do one (or more) of the following:
1 -
2 - Start your own Ask Slashdot question about how this bothers you and how you had problems as a child.
3 - Go
For the last time... (Score:5, Funny)
What!? (Score:1, Redundant)
Porn porns? What!? Ohh... POM POMs. Damn this Bitstream Vera font.
Oh yes (Score:2)
Mindstorm software.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Shameless self-promotion (Score:1)
pom-poms? (Score:2)
Do-It-Yourself Robotics??? (Score:1)
What's next? The backtalking robot? The unionized robot?
Infrared.. (Score:1)
I much prefer using the Bluetooth of LEGO Mindstorms NXT. That's basically the most important element of the system which makes my web-controllable wireless robot ( http://turbogfx.homelinux.org/legocam [homelinux.org] ) possible.
Which, by the way, after I spent $91 on 4 500mAh rechargeable 9V's + charger for the wire